Saturday, May 23, 2009

Isabel Samaras, a native of New York City, attended the Parsons School of Design, where she studied illustration. She lives and works in San Francisco, and is noted for her juxtapositions of Baby Boomer pop culture and iconic images from Western art. A fine example is the painting The Birth of Ginger, a reflection of Gilligan's Island and Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

So I hope people looking at the paintings enjoy them as objects of beauty, mystery and humor. How many onion layers they can peel is sort of up to them but I hope they work for people who have no TV/pop culture or art history background just as something interesting, intriguing and lovely. (Even if you knew nothing of Batman or mythology, it should be a compelling image. Who are these people? What are they doing? And why?)

The Judgment of Batman, featuring all three women who played Catwoman on the 1960s TV show. It's modeled on The Judgment of Paris by Peter Paul Rubens. This is one of Samaras' works of oil on a metal tray -- one of her common media.